Victim advocates call for Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi’s removal

Kathy Black in her office before domestic violence advocates rallied today on the City Hall steps. (Photo by Carlos Avila Gonzalez / The Chronicle)

A consortium of anti-domestic violence advocates today called on Mayor Ed Lee to initiate proceedings to remove Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi from office, calling it a “national embarrassment” that Mirkarimi remains sheriff after pleading guilty to misdemeanor false imprisonment in a domestic violence case.

“If Sheriff Mirkarimi will not do the right thing, the mayor and the supervisors must,” said Kathy Black of La Casa de las Madres, one of about 30 advocates who took to the City Hall steps below Lee’s balcony to call for Mirkarimi to go.

Lee is weighing whether to suspend Mirkarimi for official misconduct and initiate removal proceedings. A vote of nine of 11 members of the Board of Supervisors is needed to remove an elected official from office. The mayor has said he will wait at least until after Mirkarimi’s sentencing on Monday to announce his plans.

Mirkarimi stuck a plea deal with prosecutors Sunday night and appeared in court the next day to plead guilty to false imprisonment for a New Year’s Eve incident involving his wife, Eliana Lopez. In return, prosecutors agreed to drop the more serious charges of domestic violence battery, child endangerment and dissuading a witness. All the charges are misdemeanors.